Valley View race honors military

Liberty students participated in the fourth annual trail race

Finish line — The 5-mile race challenges runners, leading them through trails near Snowflex. Photo credit: Julie Ochoa

The Valley View 5-mile trail race was held Saturday, Nov. 10 in honor of Military Appreciation Week. More than 100 runners rallied at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre to show support and race for a cause.

“Valley View, along with five other trail races throughout the school year, accomplishes our goal in providing relevant events for the running community here at Liberty and in Lynchburg,” Promotions Manager for Student Activities Stephanie Ward said. “This year, we’ve partnered in appreciation of Military Appreciation Week, so we’re very enthusiastic about that.”

Student Activities created the Valley View race in the fall of 2009 and continued to hold the race every November.

“As a department, the goal for our events is to foster relationships and create community among the student body,” Ward said. “It’s important to create diverse events that will cater to all types of students.”

This year, the event was highly promoted throughout Liberty’s campus.

“I really enjoy trail racing, and running in general, so having a race here at Liberty is really convenient,” Liberty student Peter Bohrer said. “My favorite part of the trail was probably going along the mountain, having a little bit of a view and being able to see everything — just getting into the woods and enjoying nature.”

With a challenging outdoor trail, runners ran up Liberty Mountain and experienced the various trails surrounding the Snowflex Centre.

“This is definitely a challenging course,” Associate Director of Student Activities Joshua Yeoman said. “It is about 75 percent single track trail with a significant amount of elevation change. This year, we wanted to recognize our service members, both past and present.”

According to Ward, Liberty offers many ways for students to become involved throughout campus, and racing in honor of those supporting our country is one of the small ways Liberty gives back.

“My favorite part was probably the finish,” Liberty student Austin Burling said. “It was very hard, but I really like running the trail races that Liberty hosts. I think it’s important to do stuff like this because I have a lot of friends in the army, and it’s really helpful to do stuff like this to (honor) them while they are fighting.”

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